With a full bed and most of the cross section filled on the flex build plate, I’m seeing layer shifts around 1 mm into the print. All I can think of is that the steel sheet isn’t able to hold onto the magnets anymore and is detaching to the point where it travels in the Y axis. This matters for our print on bed designs as it is significantly affecting yield and producing scrap.
Is there any guidance on how to avoid this? Do I only have half the usable area because I need to pull my prints way further back from the edge of the build plate? I currently have at least 6 mm clearance all round in Preform. Resin is Tough 2k V2 with default 0.05 mm layers height settings.
I too had this problem with my Form 4L and flexi build plate. Turned out it was my fault, I was printing for clear parts, but imported from a grey resin set up. It seems that each resin has its own settings, and you must use the settings for that specific resin. Not sure if this is commonly known, as I am quite new to the Formlabs machines, but once I realised the issue, I never had a problem since.
Thanks Chris. I’m using the default settings for the resin I’m printing, correctly afaict. For me, it might be made worse by the geometry of my prints, which results in a “fold line” down the long axis of the flex plate. But that’s speculation. Reducing the print cross-sectional area by dropping down the number of instances of the same object and staggering them to avoid a fold line has resulted in successful prints since. Shame I can’t yet achieve the highest density the build plate would allow.
One thing you may want to check is whether resin is getting between the flex plate and the surface below. I remember reading an article by Formlabs on a flex plate, and how it could possibly cause it to pop off, or make the prints seem like it wasn’t level. Just a thought.
Just started using Tough 2000 V2 a month or two ago, and so far I’ve found it more difficult to work with. Could just be the material. Have you tried printing the parts in the failed orientation with a different resin or even a different layer height?
I haven’t tried a different resin with the failed setup as we’ve been going pretty OK with the staggered (but less efficient) setup.
My impression with Tough 2k V2 when it came out was that it was more viscous and harder to clean. Now we are in summer, I don’t have the same level of washing issues that I had originally but I expect this will return as the temperatures drop.
You raise a good point about the resin between flex plate and rigid stage. Honestly, I don’t know. The failure happened to be shortly after the plate was washed in the Wash V2 with IPA but I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. Intuitively, I would expect the process of washing to dilute and thin any layer of resin between the flex and rigid surfaces, at the perimeter. But I do leave the build plate to dry the IPA if I have washed it (I try to avoid washing it to save any contamination by the IPA and to avoid the drying delay).